Yes, we’re dumb enough. Last year, during Plymouth CRAFT’s first-ever Greenwood Fest, the question we got more than any other (except “Is there more coffee?”) was “Are you going to do this next year?” – and our catch phrase became “If we’re dumb enough to do this again…”

We’re thrilled to be so stupid! We can’t wait. The dates for Plymouth CRAFT’s Greenwood Fest 2017 are Friday June 9-Sunday June 11, 2017 at the Pinewoods Dance Camp in Plymouth Massachusetts. There will be several 2-day classes ahead of the festival, from lunchtime on Tues June 6th through lunchtime Thursday June 8th.

Paula Marcoux & I are working on the lineup, classes, descriptions and all that jazz. We are terribly sorry that our festival is in direct conflict, time-wise, with the Spoon Gathering in Milan, MN., but the dates are out of our hands pretty much. The Pinewoods Dance Camp is usually booked years ahead – that’s not an exaggeration. So we have to take the dates they have for us; and the best dates they have in terms of weather are early June. We apologize for not getting the dates out sooner.

Instructors include many returning from last year; Jögge Sundqvist, Dave Fisher, JoJo Wood – and others too. I’ll do some blog posts about them soon. Spoons, bowls, furniture, hewing – many aspects of green woodworking to explore.

Soon Paula will have the website up & running. It’s going to be posted with the classes offered, some (most?) of the schedule, etc before registration opens. That way, you’ll have time to decide about classes, etc. before panic sets in…

One of the highlight’s of last year’s Greenwood Fest put on by Plymouth CRAFT was the presentation by Jogge Sundqvist called Rhythm & Slojd…
for a long time, a short version was available on the web. then it was gone. Now it’s back. but for the real thing, get on Plymouth CRAFT’s newsletter mailing list, so you find out about Greenwood Fest 2017 – http://www.plymouthcraft.org/contact

I read somewhere that I haven’t been doing much woodworking lately! And I kept thinking about this all season, as I worked on building a shop by hand. Certainly, 2016 has been a slow year for me, furniture-wise and woodenware-wise. And the spoons are really something that fell by the wayside. Turns out carpentry makes me more tired than joinery. So I only have a few spoons for sale right now. I did update a page of a few furniture items I have available for sale – including 2 boxes and a stool at reduced prices. A couple of these are stuff that there’s no room for in the new workshop; two things are from around the house. https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/furniture-for-sale-fall-2016/

I’m slowly getting back to making custom furniture, in my typical carved oak style. Feel free to contact me if you’re looking for something like that. I also hope to add one-on-one student sessions here. More on that to come.

Here’s the spoons for sale – paypal works the easiest, I can send you an invoice. Just leave a comment if there’s a spoon you want. Prices include shipping in US, outside the states, I’ll add something for shipping. If you would rather, you can send a check. Just let me know…

another in a long series of odd-ball spoon-ish sculptures. This was made during a demonstration, and I didn’t have enough wood with me. This branch was quite weird, and I had to really work at it to get a spoon out of it!

L: 12″

$70

THE SPOONS BELOW HERE ARE SOLD AS OF WEDNESDAY NOV 30. I HOPE TO FINISH SOME MORE IN THE NEXT WEEK AND POST THEM RIGHT AWAY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

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Spoon 02 – birch serving spoon. SOLD

L: 11″

$80

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Spoon 03 – SOLD

This small server might be rowan also. I started several spoons while I was in England, finished them here. Lost track of which wood was which.

L: 9 3/4″

$70

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Spoon 05 – SOLD

this extra long cooking spoon is from an apple tree right here in my yard.

L: 15″

$90

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Spoon 06 – willow – SOLD

my favorite spoon of the batch. Fred Livesay split a crook of willow right when we got to Spoonfest in England, and it was too thick for what he wanted. So he split it again, and handed me this small section to carve. Thanks, Fred.

I did some carving today, in white pine, for window trim in the workshop. The pattern I cut was inspired by the students in the joined chest class at Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. This design has been evolving for a while now, I wrote about the basic version of this pattern five years ago https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/patterns-patterns/ This one has the additional step of hollowing the surface, and then doubling up the design.

We carved single rows of this in the class, then first one, then another student asked about doubling them up. So I copied them in this case…Here’s some of what I did. The outline is based on margins and horizontal centerlines. I mark off the spacing with a compass, and strike a punch to give me a starting point for the pattern. Then I strike the arcs with a large, #7 gouge. For the doubled braid, the first rows of strikes look like a stack of curved Vs or seagulls…

Then I turn the gouge around, and strike going the other way, toward the outer margins.

After the vertical strikes, I angle the tool downwards a bit, and remove a crescent chip.

After this step, it now looks like a stack of handlebar mustaches.

Then I go at it some more with the large #7, and begin to connect the arcs…

A shallow #5 gouge snips out some areas between the arcs, making space for some shadows.

Then I used a #8 gouge to hollow the flat parts that remain…this cut is a pivoting quarter-arc…over & over.

some go this way, some go that way…

I shot some short video of carving some of this pattern. No edits, some fumbling around is included.

I feel like I’m moving. I guess I am…I’ve been sifting through boxes of stuff that I stashed almost 3 years ago when I moved out of my old shop. The new one is nearing completion, so I keep sorting boxes…

People give me stuff every now & then, and somewhere along the line I got these small drawings. I forget who gave them to me. I scanned a few of them tonight. I don’t usually work from this sort of drawing, but I appreciate the skill that it takes to make them. They’re quite nice.

this first batch are all (except the cane chair) about 5″ x 7″ – but they’re not from one notebook, so the sizes vary. one seems like it says “drawn by C. M. Bill. I scanned them & darkened them a little…some are marked either “Albert & Vic” or “Al & Victoria” – thus the V&A in london…others are unmarked as to what collection they’re drawn from…